The great diversity of organisms found in Earth’s ecosystems endows nature with character and wonder. These seemingly simple qualities, however, emanate from a bewildering array of ecological processes, which researchers have been working tirelessly to understand. Of particular importance has been identifying the functions and components of these processes and how they sustain human health. And of special interest of late has been the relationship between biodiversity loss within ecosystems and the spread of infectious disease.

This subject was explored recently by Felicia Keesing, a professor of biology at Bard College in Annandale, N.Y., in a review published in the journal Nature. After scouring the scientific literature on biodiversity and infectious disease and summarizing findings from her own research, Keesing concluded that species diversity plays a central role in protecting us from certain types of infectious disease.

Keesing’s own studies of Lyme disease and its small-mammal hosts suggest that the loss of predators and other animals as a result of disturbances such as habitat fragmentation increases opportunities for pathogens to escape their host reservoirs and infect humans. In forests in the northeastern United States in particular, the spread of Lyme disease appears to be associated with reductions in populations of the Virginia opossum and explosions in populations of white-footed mice, which are the primary reservoir for the Lyme bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi.

The Lyme disease bacterium is transmitted by the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis), which feeds on the blood of animals such as raccoons, skunks, opossums, mice, and humans. Opossums, however, are very efficient at grooming off and killing the ticks before the ticks have an opportunity to pick up the Lyme bacterium. Hence, only a small proportion of a opossum population is actually infected with the organism. In contrast, white-footed mice are far less concerned about picking the ticks out of their fur. As a result, most white-footed mice carry the disease-causing bacteria.

Keesing has estimated that about 90 percent of ticks that feed on white-footed mice pick up the Lyme bacteria. And where opossum numbers are reduced, white-footed mice are abundant. This high abundance of mice in fragmented forests, combined with the high rate of bacterial transmission from mice, increases the opportunity for Lyme disease transmission to humans. The chances for human infection are further increased by the fact that white-footed mice tend to also thrive in areas beyond the forest boundary, such as our backyards and parks.

Loss of biodiversity has also facilitated the spread of other infectious diseases, including West Nile encephalitis. The West Nile virus is carried by “generalist” bird species such as crows and is transmitted to humans and other animals by mosquitoes. Crows and related avian generalists tend to increase in numbers in places where the overall variety in bird species is diminished, much the same way that white-footed mice are more abundant in habitats where mammal diversity has declined.

The more species diversity within an ecosystem, the greater the buffer zone between pathogens and humans. A wide array of mammals and birds enables an ecosystem to absorb pathogens, essentially preventing their transmission to humans. Thus, the diverse cast of life that makes up each ecosystem’s community has an inherent value that extends far beyond producing beauty in our world.